


The Silence of Five Years

by randomwriter57



Series: Magic AU [2]
Category: Free!
Genre: Desert AU, Gen, Magic AU, Sibling Bonding, gou and rin have fire magic, gouallout, splash free au
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-03-26
Updated: 2015-03-26
Packaged: 2018-03-19 15:01:25
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings, No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,523
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/3614274
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/randomwriter57/pseuds/randomwriter57
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Gou was close with her brother, but things changed over time.</p>
            </blockquote>





	The Silence of Five Years

**Author's Note:**

> I’m so happy our main girl’s getting her very own week! She needs a lot more love on here <3  
> I decided to combine my two prompts and write a piece set in a universe that I would love to write a long fic for soon! I’m also posting it today because this is the first day where one of my prompts shows up on the schedule.  
> Anyway, I hope you enjoy it!

The fire was getting closer. It blazed towards her, shooting towards her face with the speed of a tiger, fierce and raging. It came towards her at a speed no one would usually be able to match.

She deflected it with a flick of her hand.

Rin didn’t miss a beat. His eyes flashed, mimicking the fire as he manipulated it so it hovered in a ball a metre above the ground. Balling his hands into fists, he then pushed forwards with all his might, sending the ball back over to his sister.

Gou volleyed it back as though it was just a sports ball, hurling it over for a point.

Rin put his hands in front of himself, using all of his energy to contort the fiery globe to his will. It complied, pausing a few inches in front of him, then swooping upwards into the sunlight. A meteor, it then fell towards his opponent.

“Nice rebound!” their instructor, Sasabe, yelled over the roar of flames as Gou ducked out of the path of the fireball. Sasabe stomped once on the ground, staring directly at the fire. A hole appeared below it from nowhere and the fire fell straight through, continuing its path into the heart of the earth.

“Eh?! Not fair!” Gou said, frowning. “There was no way I could have gotten that!”

Rin grinned, amused by his sister’s disappointment. “I told you I’d win no matter what!” The embers in his eyes burned softly.

“You two did really well!” Sasabe walked over to them, handing them each a cool, damp cloth. “That rally lasted a long time - it was your best yet, I’d say!”

“Thanks, Sasabe-sensei,” the children chorused, pressing the cloths to their foreheads and sighing in bliss. Holding sparring practise under the blazing sun was difficult, but they had nowhere else that was safe to practise. At least in the courtyard there was less chance of something catching fire.

Sasabe patted their heads. “You’re good kids. Now why don’t you head back inside, get some rest.”

“Okay!” The siblings turned and began to walk back towards the palace when Sasabe called out to them once more.

“Oh, and Rin? Your father was looking for you.”

Rin raised an eyebrow but did not complain. “I’ll see you at dinner, Gou.”

“Okay,” Gou said, her smile gone.

Recently their father had been calling Rin to see him a lot more often, and each time Rin returned, he refused to say anything about what it was about. All he would say was, “It was boring, you wouldn’t be interested.” But the talks kept happening, and Rin would disappear more and more, until finally he told her, “Just stop bugging me about it, okay?”

Gou was tired of being left out. She was tired of her brother disappearing, tired of long slow days spent reading or studying or wandering the halls of the palace, the only words she heard being “Hello, your highness.” But those days continued, and her brother showed up less and less, until the only time she saw him was when they sparred together in the courtyard, not a word being spoken as fire fought fire.

Even then their time together was limited by the beginnings of their independent Related Powers studies. Of course, they wouldn’t be independent if Rin hadn’t said, “I’m having lightning, so you have to do heat control! You can’t just copy me all the time!”

And not long after that, she was sparring with her independent teacher, Amakata, instead, and her brother was gone.

 

* * *

 

The fire gets closer. It blazes towards her, a reflection of her own power, fierce and raging. It comes towards her at a speed that only one person could match.

She deflects it towards her imaginary opponent.

The fire hits the mirror and returns to her, its state the same as it has been for the past fifteen minutes. Gou is getting tired now, tired of the same fire, unchanging, never getting stronger or weaker - an eternal opponent. She flicks it away again, and it returns to the mirror. And then it reflects. And then she flicks it away again.

And then it is intercepted. It stops a few metres in front of the mirror, hovering a few metres above the ground. At first she thinks Amakata has stopped her, then she thinks it’s a mirage. Then the fire grows. Its pace accelerates as it comes back at her, stronger than it has been for a while.

Pulling together whatever energy she can, she stops it a few inches before her face, moving it to the side so she can see past it.

Red hair. Light clothing. Fiery eyes.

She grins.

She pushes the fire into the air, letting it fall down on her real opponent.

This time, Rin doesn’t miss a beat. He pushes his own fire towards hers, creating a collision of sparks which turns into a miniature sun. The sun drops towards her.

Gou breathes in deeply and feels the warmth around them enter her body. She grasps the fire, unharmed, and molds it into a phoenix, which swoops towards its prey.

Rin is trying something similar - he grasps the air with his hands, tries to produce his own flame but cannot seem to. He looks up and cries out before ducking out of the way of the fire, which stops a yard above the ground. Gou whips it out of existence with a flick of her hand.

“What the hell?” Rin says, eyes wide and burning. “Was that heat control?” Not waiting for an answer, he grins. “That was dirty play, Gou.”

Gou grins back at him as the warmth returns to the atmosphere. “We must be even then.”

Rin laughs, walking towards his sister with his hand outstretched. “You’ve improved. Well done.”

Gou bats away his hand and pulls him into a hug, her head resting on his chest. “Thanks, Onii-chan.” She draws back before he can react, hands on her hips. “Although you’d know that if you’d actually sparred with me at some point in the past five years!”

“I’ve been busy!” Rin says, putting his hands in front of him as though surrendering. “Being Sultan’s not an easy job, you know.”

Gou casts her eyes to the ground. Ever since their father died a year ago and Rin ascended to the throne, he probably hasn’t even had time to spar. After all, there was a lot he’s had to change, and a lot more still to improve. “I know.”

Rin’s eyes soften. “Gou, can we talk for a bit? I need to tell you something.”

Gou looks up, puzzled and curious as to what her brother needs to tell her. A moment later, it dawns on her that she will finally get to spend time with her brother. She beams. “Of course!”

They sit in the shade at the edge of the courtyard, watching servants and guards occasionally pass by, invisible to the world. The heat wavers in front of them, but there are no damp cloths to cool down with today - there haven’t been for a few years now.

“When dad was dying, he told me he wanted me to be Sultan,” Rin says after a few minutes. “I told him no - I was too young, too inexperienced. But he wouldn’t let me back out. He said I had to, because no one else could. Of course, I asked him why mum couldn’t take over, why it had to be me, but he just said something like, ‘Girls aren’t fit to run a kingdom, you should know that by now!’”

Gou frowns. She doesn’t understand why this is so important, but she says nothing.

“When I became Sultan, there was one thing that I wanted to change right away. It’s taken a while, but the law’s going to be passed tomorrow.” He looks at her in all seriousness. “If I die, or I can’t be Sultan anymore for whatever reason, I want you to be my successor.”

“What?!” she cries out, moving back in shock. “But I can’t be the Sultan, I don’t know how to rule a kingdom-”

“Neither did I,” Rin confesses. “I learnt about it through books and teachers and those meetings with dad, but I still don’t know what I’m doing, not entirely. I mean, I thought it was right to keep slaves when I started!”

Gou looks down, her mind racing. She never expected this, she never thought she would one day succeed her brother, but now it is a possibility, and she feels frightened, she doesn’t think she can do it, not yet-

“Besides, I’m not dead yet, am I?” Rin interrupts her thoughts, and she looks back to him. “I can help you, if you need it.”

Of course. Rin’s still here. He won’t die anytime soon. She has a lifetime to learn about ruling a kingdom. She can do this. And Rin will be there, he’ll help her. He’ll finally be by her side again. “Okay,” she says, “I’ll do it.”

The silence of five years falls, and laughter fills the courtyard once more.


End file.
